Pierce Brosnan to Host 7th Annual “Breakthrough Prize” Ceremony on Sunday, November 4 Live on National Geographic

The Annual, Star-Studded Ceremony that Celebrates Science and Scientific Achievement To Feature an “In Memoriam” Tribute to the Late Stephen Hawking.

Ceremony to Air Live at 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT.

San Francisco – October 16, 2018 – The Breakthrough Prize today announced that acclaimed actor, producer and philanthropist Pierce Brosnan will host its 7th annual ceremony, which will celebrate science and the achievements of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize laureates on Sunday, November 4, at a live ceremony at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

The ceremony will be broadcast live at 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT on National Geographic, and be streamed live on the Facebook and YouTube platforms of National Geographic TV (Facebook / YouTube) and Breakthrough Prize (Facebook / YouTube).

Hosted by Brosnan, the program will include a tribute to the late, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in March 2018.

Details of the evening’s musical performance and celebrity presenters will be announced at a later date. The show will be directed and produced, for the sixth time, by Don Mischer, alongside executive producers Charlie Haykel and Juliane Hare of Don Mischer Productions.

Now in its seventh year, Silicon Valley’s Breakthrough Prize – the world’s most generous science prize – honors paradigm-shifting research and discovery in the fields of fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics. This year, a total of seven $3 million prizes will be awarded – four in life sciences, two in fundamental physics, and one in mathematics. One of the two physics prizes – the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics – was awarded in September to the British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell for her discovery of pulsars – a detection first announced in February 1968 – and her inspiring scientific leadership over the last five decades.

The Breakthrough Prizes are sponsored by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Ma Huateng, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. Selection Committees composed of previous Breakthrough Prize laureates in each field choose the winners.

Breakthrough Prize

For the seventh year, the Breakthrough Prizes will recognize the world’s top scientists. Each prize is $3 million and presented in the fields of Life Sciences (up to four per year), Fundamental Physics (one per year) and Mathematics (one per year). In addition, up to three New Horizons in Physics and up to three New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes are given out to junior researchers each year. Laureates attend a live televised award ceremony designed to celebrate their achievements and inspire the next generation of scientists. As part of the ceremony schedule, they also engage in a program of lectures and discussions.

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